Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1887-08-11

/ haphael ana Angelo knew that literal
/ transcripting was not art
The heart of Rose Jourdon had expert
enced romance of kind not execution
al for the day and place. There always
has been romance lowering around our
! great gulf coast, but romance was more
intense fifty years ago than it is nov.
even in Mobile. Men died for love in
/ those days, and women deemed it an
/ honor to love once and forever. Then.
| indeed, was woman's love worth a man 5
| life to gain and hold.
II.
| When Rose Jourdon returned from a
/ long stay abroad and became the I'M
spoiled pet of Mobile society, her heart
was already given to handsome, noble,
and gifted lover. Count Silvio Martini,of
Florence. Roses stay abroad had been
peculiarly trIumphai in a social way.
! She had been presented at great courts,
and she had attracted tire ate ntjon and
friendship of Samuel Rogers, Lamartine,
of Hugo, and of grand old Goethe, for she
was poet of rare promise as well as
beauty, and she had fred the heart of
many courtly man. Happy indeed was
Count Silvio Martini to win so sweet a
prize. DE pleaded in vain, however, for
| their marriage to take place in Florence;
Rose felt that she could not be wed in a
foreign land. So she came home in the
spring and the count followed her late in
the autumn.
That was season of great social bril-
liancy and activity in the little city by
hn
ed everyone with his dignity, his Gu tire,
his handsome face, ana the perfect Ital
ian music of his voice. In those days
Mobile had no railroads, of course, and
her harbor was not the best; but her sit
uation, although isolated, was somewhat
commanding, and a great wealth of
cotton and other products streamed
through her gates. Her people we're as
rich as they were naughty and exclusive;
they were also superbly hospitable aud
gfandly extravaganza in their methods of
social entertainment. The count was ac-
corded welcome into every inner circle
of the most exclusive class, AMI he was
surprised at the prIncely, the almost in
describable lavishness of the banqueting
offered him. The homes of the little city
were thrown open to him, servants were
at his command, horses, carriages, dogs,
guns, yachts we're always ready for him,
while the profuse courtesies of brave men
and stately women wero lavished upon
him, and yet nothing seemed done with
any effort or trouble; all was ease, grace
and gentleness of sort peculiarly Amer
lean and altogether southern.
Count Silvio, with an Italians hexibil-
ity and adjustability to social demands
met this generous hospitality with a
suavity and courtly sincerity of demean-
or so magnetic and pleasing that he at
once became a great favorite. Naturally
enough he had expected to find America
very new aud very strange, but he was
fascinated by the charm of this refine
ment-more refined in certain regards
than that of any society he had known,
connected, too, with such freedom.
In those days the vice of gaming was
prevalent in the south, and the count was
a devoted card player SO it came about
that, in company with friends, he often
sat at table at fashionable resort. 1t
was over this table that the quarrel arose
but cards or stakes had nothing to do
with it. 1t was the actress, Mile. Dupree
who was just then playing in Mobile, that
caused the trouble. 1t matters little as
to details; suffice it to say that the beau
tiful and eccentric young woman became
for few minutes the subject of light
conversation among the card players, and
finally young Marcy Farnwell, who was a
little in wine, said something rather de-
rogatory regarding the character of
Mile. Dupree. Instantly the count struck
him.
If thunderbolt had fallen in the room
it would have caused less consideration.
The affair was absolutely inexplicable to
all present, even to Marcy Farnwell, who
however, promptly returned the blow,
and weapons instantly flashed in the air,
but friends interfered and the combatants
were separated.
1t takes bnt few words to set such an
incident before the readers mind, but
little reflection will emphazise the pic
ture. In those days a quarrel between
men who called themselves gentlemen
meant blood and death. duel was the
only result to be thought of in this case
Marcy Farnwell was the challenger, and
the count chose pistols at distance of
ten PAGES. 1t was all so swiftly arranged
that, though the quarrel ended at about
II in the evening, the meeting came off
next morning at sunrise, three miles be-
low the city, on the beach of the bay
There had been strenuous efforts to &C
complish q reconciliation; but the count
was implacable and young Farnwell was
stubborn. SO the matter was pushed rapid
ly to its tragic outcome. Indeed 1t was
quite over before more than a rumor of it
had gone abroad in the city.
In those days duels were common in
cidents of life in the south but society
never could quite adjust itself so as to
even appear Indifferent TO the custom of
appealing to the arbitrament of death.
Each duel as it transpired seemed little
more shocking to Christian enlighten-
ment than the preceding one. Mobile
had buried many proud and beloved oic-
times d'hoHneiT, and had cherished the
code, but each sacrifice to the barbarous
custom seemed greater than any other,
and so the strain grew more cruel year by
yeer.
But if there was one phase of this so
called chivalry which was more terrible
pathetic than all the rest, il was that of q
young man upon the dueling field at the
threshold of married life, when the
sweet girl fianoee cast aside her half-fn-
5sha1 troussaau ard earl- ~ ~ tho ryIoouo